Nand richter



UNrrED TATES PATENT ICE.-

MAX MORITZ FERDINAND RICHTER, OF HAMBURG, GERMANY.

COMPOSITION FOR PACIFYING WAVES OF THE SEA.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 519,161, dated May 1, 1894. Application filed December 9, 1893. Serial No- 493,282- (No specimens.)

To all whom itmwy concern.-

Be it known that I, MAX MORITZ FERDI- NAND RICHTER, a subject of the King of Prussia, residing at Hamburg, in the German Empire, have invented certain new and useful Improved Means for Pacifying the Waves of the Sea, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to improvements in the means for pacifying the waves of the sea for the protection of the ships or vessels. For

this purpose oils of different kinds have been hitherto employed, viz-animal oils, such asfish-oils, vegetable oils such as linseed oil, cotton seed oil, 850., and also the so called mineraloils, as for instance petroleum. In practice it has however been proved,-that the efficiency of these oils decreases according to the higher degree of their purity, that is to say, the more inferior, impure and also viscid the oil is, the greater is its power for pacifying the sea waves. For this reason amply purified oil used in food, such as sesam-oil, olive-oil, 850., also an amply rectified petroleum, as well as such oils, which become solid at low temperatures are useless for the desired purpose. The animal and vegetable oils consist principally of fatty acid glycerides, the mineral oils of liquid hydrocarbons.

From exhaustive experiments ithas been proved, that the power of pacifying waves is simply and solely attributed to the small quantity of liquid fatty acids contained in these oils. Such fatty acids may be found the latter, or they are formed from the fatty acid glycerides obtained in a well known mannor on smelting the oils or fats at a considerable highv temperature and thereby decomposing the glycerides into glycerine and free fatty acids. The crude petroleum also contains small quantities (about one-fourth to one and one-fourth per cent.) of liquid fatty the distillate, will exert the power of pacifying waves. As a proof, that this phenomenon is simply and solely produced by even minute quantities of the liquid fatty acids,

- fit. the oleic acid, it may be mentioned, that l an entirely inefficient petroleum will forthfor instance in the olive-oil in natural state 'of with obtain the property of calming the waves by adding thereto about 0.1 per cent. oleic acid. To afiord the same proof but in the reverse sense it may be noted that an amply acting oil to be composed of ninety-nine per cent. fatty acid glycerides and one per cent. free oleic acid will lose its property of calming the sea as soon as this one per cent. oleic 6o Physically speakingextensive experiments have shown that the thickness of the film of oleic acid on the water does at times not exceed 0.000002 millimeter, also that the oleic acid is soluble in river water in about the proportion of one to eleven thousand, indistilled water in the proportion of about one to eight thousand and in salt or sea water in the proportion of about one to twentysix thousand; also that the distribution or spreading power of the oleic acid on the surface of the water is due to its degree of solubility in via of agitated waters .ter, and finally that the qnieting or pacifying s of the sea is-clue to the simple phenomenon of diffusion.

The liquid fatty acids referred to may b j used in a pure state or in the form tion in a suitable solvent, as if desired or necessary for the purpose of in ofa solucrea'sing the adhesion, said acids may be mixed with'a'so-called distributer which of" course must be a body readily soluble in petroleum as well as in sea water.

petroleum, and 8 For the purpose of promoting the distribn-' 9c employed, as for instance the anhydrous alcohols, as amyl alcohol. Instead of petroleum, the fatty acids may be dissolved in active alcohols, as methyl alcohol, spirits, as, or etheric oils, as the turpenes, camphor oilsor rosin oils may be used as a'solvent'for the tion of the fatty acids various bodies may be oleicacid, in all of which-the latter is'active. v Inasmuch as oleic acid con'geals at-about 0., 1

centigrade, a solution of substances named possesses the advantage that it can be used under almost any atmos heric temperature, even at a temperature as fatty acid in the low as 20, and that it can be made of a uniform composition without difficulty and at any time. This supposition will not occur with the oils in common trade, as the same are unequally composed according to their nature and mode of production and in most cases become already solid at 45 centigrade in consequence of their contents of solid stearic acid glyceride, palmitic acid glyceride, margaric acid glyceride, &c., and will therefore be useless for the desired purpose.

Having fully described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. Means for pacifyin g the waves of the sea, consisting of an unsaturated fatty acid or a solution thereof in a liquid free from or naturally containing but a small proportion of such acid in a free state, substantially as set forth.

2. Means for pacifying the waves of the sea, which consist of an unsaturated fatty acid, as oleic acid, or a solution thereof in a liquid free from or naturally containing but a small proportion of such acid in a free state and a substance adapted to act as a distributersoluble in the solvent and in water, as amylalcohol.

3. A method of pacifying the waves of the sea, which consists in spreading on the wators an unsaturated fatty acid, as oleic acid, substantially as set forth.

- 4. A method of pacifying the waves of the sea, which consists in dissolving an unsaturated fatty acid in a liquid free from or containing naturally but a small proportion of such acid, adding to the solution a substance soluble in the acid solvent as well as in water and adapted to act as a distributer as amyl alcohol and spreading the solution on the waters, substantially as set forth.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my invention I have signed my name, in presence of two Witnesses, this 25th day of November, 1893.

MAX MORITZ FERDINAND RICHTER.

Witnesses:

ALEXANDER SI EcHr, DIEnRIcH PETERSEN. 

